V) a::: w o Z <( V) Q2 w I- saving lives while ragging the military bu- reaucracy The movie's chief charm is a free- for-all, throwaway attitude. A surgical hospi- tal where the doctors' hands are lost in chests and guts is certainly an unlikely subject for comedy, but "M* A *S*H" is probably the Sdnest American mOVIe of its era. With Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duval1. The semi - im provised material uke:::. off from a script by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on the novel by Richard Hooker (a doctor's pseu- donym).-P.K. (Film Forum 2; July 17-18) THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955)-Ace B director Phil Karlson gives the vice-ridden little-city Alabama milieu a skin-crawling seediness; the sleaze czar played by the saggy-bodied Edward Andrews moves through it with be- wildering confidence, like a tyrannosaurus who can somehow maneuver in a tar pit. Based on actual events that led to the assassination of a reform candidate for attorney general, Albert Patterson (played by John McIntire), this volatile, point-ramming muckraker of a movie erratically conflates Hollywood professionals like Richard Kiley (as Patterson's son, John) with actual locations and real people. Yet its lived-in aura of corruption can't be shaken off, and its depictions of singular atrocities- like thugs kidnapping and murdering a hlack girl in broad daylight, to scare off the re- formers-haven't lost their intense horror. Screenplay by Crane Wilbur and Daniel Mainwaring.-M.S. (Museum of Modern Art; July 18.) SHANE (1953)-Superficially, this is a Western, but from Shane's knightly costume, from the way his horse canters, from the Agincourt music, it's all too recognizable as an attempt to create a myth With chivalric purity as his motivation, the enigmatic Shane (Alan Ladd) defeats enemies twice his size-the largest is the Prince of Darkness himself, Jack Palance. The earth-loving Wyoming homesteaders be- friended by Shane include Van Heflin, Jean Arthur as his wife, and Brandon de Wilde as their child. This George Stevens film is overplanned and uninspired: Westerns are bet- ter when they're not so self-importantly self- conscious. The cinematography by Loyal Griggs won the Academy Award; this must have struck him as a black Joke, because Paramount, in order to take advantage of the new fashion for the wide screen, had mutilated the composi- tions by cutting off the top and bottom.-P.K. (Museum of Modern Art; July 22.) THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974)-Lou Jean (Goldie Hawn) and her husband (William Atherton) are petty thieves who lost custody of their infant son while they were in jail; their at- tempt to get him back involves Liking a highway patrol officer (Michael Sack:,) ho:,- tage. The child is with hi:, adoptive parents in the town of Sugarland, and as LJu Jean and her husband drive there in the patrol car they've commandeered, other cars follow. The twenty-six-year-old director, Steven Spielberg, patterns the cars; he makes them dance and crash and bounce back. The cars have tiffs, wrangle, get confused. And so do the people. These huffy characters, riled up and yelling at each other, are in the combustible comedy style of Preston Sturges; the movie sees the characters' fitful, moody nuttiness as the American's inalienable right to make a fool of himself. The cinematography-full of shim- mering, eerie effects-is by Vilmos Zsig- mond.-P.K. (Film Forum 2; starting July 23.) UNCONQUERED (1947)-ln Cecil B. De Mille's ex- pensive Technicolor epic about pioneers and Indians in pre-Revolutionary America, the usu- ally spunky and brunette Paulette Goddard, playing an English bond slave, lets her dyed- red haIr do the acting. It attracLs both the gallant militiaman Gary Cooper and the das- tardly illegal-arms tycoon Howard da Silva; indeed, it drives all men wild, except, of course, for the Indians, who subject her to ritual torture. Overblown, ludicrous, and racist, with leaden oratory about the frontier spirit, the movie nevertheless has its florid charms De Mille knew how to break down sprawling sagas into lavish set pieces; in one irresistible spate of derring-do, Cooper, using nothing more than a compass and some gunpowder, rescues Goddard from the Indians, then takes her tumbling down the rapids. Charles Bennett, Fredric M. Frank, and Jesse Lasky, Jr., wrote the execrable script, from Neil H. Swanson's nove1.-M.S. (Museum of Modern Art; July 21.) LATE R.UN5, CLA55IC5, ETC. (Tztles wzth a daf?ger are reviewed above.) FILM FORUM 2. W. Houston St west of Sixth Ave. (727-8110)-Films made in Hollywood between 1969 and 1975. July 17-18: "M*A*S*H" (t) and "Heavy Traffic" (1973, Ralph Bakshi). . . . 21 (1956, Rene Clement). . . . July 17 at 4:15 and 8:30: "Douce" (1943, Claude Autant-Lara). . . . July 18 at 2 and 6 and July 21 at 6: "The Clockmaker" (1 Q73, Bertrand Tavernier), with Phili ppe N oiret, Jean Rochefort, and Sylvain Rougerie. . . . July 18 and July 21 at 4 and 8: "A Sunday in the Country" (1984, Taver- nier). . . . July 22 at 2 and 6:15 and July 23 at 4: "Thérèse Desqueyroux" (1963, Georges Franju). . . . July 22 at 4:15 and 8:30 and July 23 at 2: "La Bête Humalne" (1938, Jean Renoir), with Jean Gabin.... CJI July 19-20 at 6:30 and 9: "Lonesome" (t). . . . CJI Weekend showings for children. July 20-21 Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, and Sylvain Rougerie in "The Clockmaker.>> July 19-21: "Chinatown" (t). . . . July 22: "Two- Lane Blacktop" (1971, Monte Hellman) and "Cockfighter" (1974, Hellman). . . . From July 23: "The Last Picture Show" (1971, Peter Bog- danovich) and "The Sugarland Express" (t). CINEMA VILLAGE. 22 E. 12th St. (924-3363)- Through July 18: "In the Realm of the Senses" (1977, Nagisa Oshima; in Japanese). . . . From July 19: "Girlfriends," short films by or about lesbians. LINCOLN PLAZA CINEMAS. Broadway at 63rd SL (757-2280)-A program of films directed by Satyajit Ray, all in Bengali. Through July 18: "Pather Panchali" (1955). . . . From July 19: "Aparajito" (1958). MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. Roy and Niuta Titus Theatre:::., 11 W. 53rd St. (708-9480)-A show- ing of films from the museum':, Martin Scor- sese Collection. July 18 at 2:30: "Ea:,t Side, West Side" (1949, Mervyn LeRoy). . . . July 18 at 6: "The Phenix City Story" (t). . . . July 19 at 2:30: "The Band Wagon" (1953, Vincente Minnelli), with Fred Astaire and Cyd Cha- risse. . . . July 19 at 6 and July 21 at 3: "Can- yon Passage" (1946, Jacques Tourneur), with Dana Andrews. . . . July 19 at 8: "Silver River" (1948, Raoul Walsh), with Errol Flynn. . . . July 20 at 1: "Desert Fury" (1947, Lewis Allen), with John Hodiak. . . . July 20 at 3: "Streets of Loredo" (1949, Leslie Fenton), with William Holden, Macdonald Carey, and Mona Free- man. . . . July 20 at 5 and July 23 at 2:30: "Duel in the Sun" (1946, King Vidor), with Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck. . . . July 21 at 1: "Man in the Saddle" (1951, André de Toth) , with Randolph Scott. . . . July 21 at 5: "Unconquered" (t). _ . . July 22 at 2:30: "Johnny Guitar" (1954, Nicholas Ray), with Joan Craw- ford and Sterling Hayden.... July 22 at 6: "Shane" (t). . . . July 23 at 6: "The Indian Fighter" (1955, de Toth), with Kirk Douglas. WALTER READE THEATRE. Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St., pla.6a level (875-56oo)-A program of French film:, Ldsed on French noveb, plays, or short stories. July 17 at 2 and 6:15: "Gervaise" at 2: "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947, Norman Z. McLeod), with Danny Kaye. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE. 35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria (1-718 784-0077)-A pro- gram of films directed by Mervyn LeRoy. July 20 at 2: "Little Caesar" (t). . . . July 20 at 4: "Two Seconds" (1932), with Edward G. Robin- son. . . . July 21 at 2: "Gold Diggers of 1933.". . . July 21 at 4: "Showgirl of Hollywood" (1930). FLORENCE GOULD HALL. 55 E 59th St. (355- 6160)-July 23 at 12:30, 3:15, 6, and 8:45: "Jules and Jim" (t). THE 19TH ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTI- VAL-Two weekends 0uly 19-21 and July 25- 28) of new films from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Viet- nam, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (Florence Gould Hall, 55 E 59th S1. For information, call 925-8685.) BRYANT PARK. Sixth Ave. at 42nd St.-Mondays, stdrting at dusk. free drive-in-style movie- going, beginning with Looney Tunes, coming attractions, and newsreels. The feature on July 22 will be "Funny Face" (1957, Stanley Donen). (Rain date is the followIng night.) FILM AL FRESCO. at Le Madn Restaurant, 168 W. 18th St. (727-8022)-Sunday evenings, more films out-of-doors, with food and live music beginning at 6 and the movie starting at about 8:30. On July 21, the feature will be "The Wild Bunch" (1969, Sam Peckinpah), with William Holden, Erne:,t Borgnine, and Rob- ert Ryan. (Rain date is the following night.) A DIFFERENT LIGHT BOOKSTORE. 151 W. 19th St. (989- 4850)-A Sunday-night series of free films (and popcorn) On July 21 at 7, the feature will be "A Summer Place" (1959, Delmer Daves). MUSEUM OF TELEVISION AND RADIO. 25 W. 52nd St. (621-6800)-' 'Karaoke" and ' 'Cold Lazarus,' , the final works by writer Dennis Potter (1935- 94), are being shown at the museum on a rotating basis. July 18-19 at 6 and July 20-21 at 2: "Karaoke" (1996, Renny Rye), with Albert FInney, Saffron Burrows, and Hywel Bennett.